As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. An option is an Information Handling System (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, global communications, etc. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Components of an IHS consume electrical power and can generate significant amounts of heat. Heat within an IHS may degrade the reliability and performance of various internal components of the IHS, possibly resulting in costly malfunctions and component failures. In order to circulate heated air away from internal components, an IHS may utilize a cooling fan, or a plurality of cooling fans organized within an airflow cooling system. As temperatures within the IHS increase, the cooling fans may ventilate heated air from within the IHS, or from within certain internal compartments of the IHS. Certain IHSs may utilize a single cooling fan to ventilate heated air from within the IHS. Other IHSs may utilize airflow cooling systems that include one or more banks of cooling fans and a fan controller that is configured to monitor and control the cooling fans.
The airflow generated by such cooling fans may not provide sufficient cooling to components installed at locations furthest away from the cooling fans, or at other locations that receive limited airflow from the cooling fans. Providing better cooling to such components may be accomplished by increasing the airflow velocity of the cooling fans, thus resulting in increased energy consumption and noise. In addition, increasing the airflow velocity generated by the cooling fans may nonetheless provide insufficient airflow for certain components. Cooling such components may also be addressed by incorporating more cooling fans, but such solutions require additional cost and complexity, in addition to increasing the noise and energy requirements of the airflow cooling system.